


Short Circuit

by cybernya



Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Childhood Trauma, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Romance, F/M, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:20:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21637987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cybernya/pseuds/cybernya
Summary: “You’re not taking them.”“Them? It’s a droid. Now hand it over.”“Especially not with that attitude.”“Just give me the droid, and I’ll leave you alone.”“I would rather die for this droid than let them be taken and siphoned for information.”Well that was extreme.--Droid Wrangler OFC/Reader x Mandalorian
Relationships: The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV)/Original Female Character(s), The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV)/Reader
Comments: 4
Kudos: 110





	1. PROLOGUE: The Exchange

“You’re not taking them.”

“Them? It’s a droid. Now hand it over.”

“Especially not with that attitude.”

“Just give me the droid, and I’ll leave you alone.”

“I would rather die for this droid than let them be taken and siphoned for information.”

Well that was extreme.

“Haven’t we all lost enough in this war?”

He noticed the woman was staring down at her wrists for a moment. His own mind flashes back for a second, as he blinks his eyes behind his mask, tuning out the blabbering for a split second before he’s back.

“I know you care, under there, about the people who’re at risk.”

“No.”

“Yes, you do.”

“No, I don’t.”

“I see it there, even if you don’t ever take your mask off.”

His hand tightened into a fist. She knew how to get under his skin, under his helmet and armor and everything he is.

“I’m not letting anything happen to my buddy R3. Even if that means I take blaster fire.”

He stared. Was she crazy?

“You haven’t objected.”

It takes a lot to not just grab the droid and run. The woman’s covered in bandages and the bags under her eyes give away more than she probably wanted to. The Mandalorian turns on his heel and stalks back to the ship.

“Still not a no!”

This was not going to end well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had this "Droid Wrangler" kicking around for quite some time - she originally was going to be in a series that was Reader x Poe (all thanks to BB-8). The moment I first watched episode one of The Mandalorian, I knew she needed to bother him. A lot. 
> 
> Fun Droid Detail: The R3 unit in this has an opaque dome (as all R3 units do) with a teal-green and grey sort of color scheme.


	2. CHAPTER ONE: Three Days

Day three of being even in the vicinity of the so-called droid “defender” and the Mandalorian was done. 

So very, very done.

They’d been hiding in some backwater town, with dust swirling around them and other Guild members arriving at an unprecedented pace. Something wasn’t right, but he couldn’t put his finger on what. 

The woman, on the other hand, couldn’t keep her fingers off of the dumb droid she’d decided to protect.

“It’s a hunk of junk,” he sighed, grinding his teeth behind the mask. “The information is all I need. Just let me part it out --”

There was a sharp breath from across the dimly lit room, followed by an angry set of beeps. 

“You’re right, he is a hunk of junk R3! Maybe we should just part him out instead. We’d be able to get out of here in no time!” she said, patting the droid’s dome. She then bent down, turning over her shoulder before loudly whispering to R3, “though I do wonder, is he really flesh and blood under that helmet?”

“I would not continue that thought if I were you,” he spat, clenching and unclenching his fists repeatedly. A chill ran up his spine, hair on end under the armor as he tried very hard not to let the past come to haunt him once again.

The moments during his helmet forging had been enough of a reminder.

“Sorry.” Her apology was quiet - she’d noticed that he hadn’t slept since they had arrived. It was supposed to just be friendly banter, not anything serious… 

Silence fell between them as the Mando began to pace the room - she had been adamant that there were parts in this town they could use to repair the R3’s infrared receptor and comlink. So far, they’d found nothing. 

“I’m going to head out to the market and see if I can find some parts for R3’s comlink. I think the parts for the infrared receptor may be similar from what I found earlier. Do you want to come with me?” She put the bag over her shoulder and adjusted a bandage around her wrist, head tilted slightly as she awaited an answer.

“No.”

“... I can take R3 with me, if you’d like,” she offered.

Was it that obvious he was uncomfortable?

“No.”

“But --”

“There’s a high influx of Guild activity here. It -- They’ll be safer with me,” he said, sparing a glance towards the R3 unit. They whirred back at him, almost like a purr. “Take this. Don’t take too long, either. I can only stand your buddy here for so long…”

He threw a small blaster from the open container next to him, concealing a laugh as the droid wrangler struggled to catch it. 

“Just point it away from you, and you’ll be fine,” he added, shaking his head. “I’m sure you’ll have better aim than a Stormtrooper.”

“...right,” she laughed, making a bit of a face to R3 as they chirped in response. “Well, I’ll be back. R3, make sure he doesn’t try and pull something funny.”

The droid beeped in response as it moved next to the Mandalorian, hopping side-to-side in an effort to send off their friend.

“You don’t pull anything funny on me, and I won’t sell you for parts. That sound fair?” he said as soon as the woman was out of earshot, chuckling to himself. “What the hell am I even thinking? She’s insane. Four days with her and I’m promising not to sell a droid for parts or information that I was paid to collect.”

The R3 unit whirred, moving back to the table with the woman’s other bag on it. 

“I’m not lookin’ through that,” he said firmly, “especially not after giving her a damn blaster.”

The droid beeped, trying to encourage him to look. 

“If she wanted me to look, she would have said so.”

More beeping, followed by an almost-annoyed chirp.

“She said herself that your comlink and infrared were broken and she needed to find parts. They aren’t in that bag.” He was becoming more annoyed by the minute - arguing with an R3 unit? That woman’s crazy was rubbing off on him. 

He walked over to the table, getting ready to scold the droid for even insinuating that there was something more inside when he noticed how beat up the leather was. 

R3 began to beep excitedly before earning a knock to the dome.

“Can it, will you? I haven’t slept since we landed here thanks to you and I’m not about to lose any more sleep over a woman who does everything she can for you! I have a job to do, and you better spit up that information before she comes back. That way, we can all get back to where we belong,” he hissed, slamming his hands on the table. 

“I thought droids bothered you…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SPOILER-RELATED NOTES: The armor forging scene in ep. 3 reALLLY gave me some good stuff to work with. Like, childhood-trauma-of-parents-being-killed-by-that-massive-droid stuff. (Hence the tag. Figured I'd throw it there early.) Poor Wangler here has some trauma of her own, but she's far more focused on others (hence the care of droids over herself) to deal with it.
> 
> I wonder what's in the bag?


	3. CHAPTER THREE: Passing Conversation

If the Mandalorian could look stunned, he would.

R3 practically hopped at the droid wrangler’s return - despite their short time together, they’d grown attached to her. A chorus of happy beeps chirped as the droid spun around.

“I didn’t get the parts yet, R3. I just came back because I realized I needed to check something from that bag,” she sighed, shaking her head, “which I hope you weren’t looking through.”

“See, I told you,” the bounty hunter sighed, glaring through his visor at the R3 unit.

“You didn’t answer my question,” she added, raising an eyebrow as she bent around him, snatching the bag from the table. 

“It was a statement. What’s it matter to you anyway?” 

She noticed the hesitation in response. As she fished through the bag, she hummed softly.

“It matters if you’re going to scrap my friend R3 the moment I leave the room,” she said, pulling what seemed like scraps of metal from the bag and moving them to the one at her side after inspecting them. 

What she didn’t say was how she noticed how disgruntled he was the day they met, or how his body language reflected a constant need to be on guard.

They’d only known each other for four days, after all. 

It wouldn’t be polite. 

It was probably the bounty hunter training, anyway, that caused him to be so unpleasant. The Mandalorian was probably more accustomed to dealing with cold bodies rather than warm. 

R3 finally broke the silence that had settled into the room, dome moving from the Mandalorian to the wrangler.

“Yes, R3, I’ve got everything I need this time. I might’ve spotted a trader, too, so if things go well you’ll be patched up in no time!” she cooed, moving to pat the translucent dome. “That way we can figure out what information you’ve really got in there. And if it’s nothing, it’s nothing!”

He frowned; the last statement was intended for him, as if he’d get away with not bringing in the requested droid. It just didn’t work that way. 

R3 blipped in response, following her to the door. She placed the old bag inside one of the containers they’d found, lips pursed in thought before heading back out to the market. The droid let out a whine before rolling back in, lights flashing. 

“Don’t get that way with me. My threat still stands,” the Mandalorian sighed, shaking his head.   
  


Something wasn’t right.

Beyond the fact that he had cleaned his chest plate and tuned his blaster without dismantling the R3 unit circling the room, the Mandalorian noticed something was off.

The woman hadn’t returned yet, and the sun had just set.

The droid beeped in concern.

“She has a blaster, and I haven’t heard any blaster fire,” he objected, arms crossed against his chest.

**Bwee-boo**. The droid seemed to huff in response as they ran into the Mandalorian’s leg.

“Maybe she decided she was sick of your whining.”

**Boo. Boop-bwee-beep!**

“Oh, you’re saying it’s my fault for what I said earlier? That my threat to part you out offended her?”

**Bree!**

The Mandalorian sighed heavily. “No, trash can, it is not my fault. I don’t even know her.”

**Bwee-boo-bweeee…**

“I’m done talking to you.” 

There he went again, having a conversation with a droid who was suggesting that he could get to know the strange woman. Why did he care anyway? If she didn’t come back, he could finish the job and get back to where he belonged. 

Then came the blaster fire.

R3 nearly ran over his foot as the blasters exchanged fire in the distance, ramming into the beskar shin pads repeatedly as they screamed.

“Shut it, will you!” The Mandalorian hissed, hitting the droid on the dome before running for his rifle. 

The droid whirred and beeped quickly, trailing after the bounty hunter.

“I’m sorry, what?!” he yelled, whipping around to face the R3 unit. His eyes narrowed underneath the visor as he ground his teeth. “I thought she said your comlink was broken!”

R3 bleeped softly, almost in shame as the blaster fire quieted in the background. 

“You LIED?”

**Bweee…**

“What do you mean you just wanted the attention?!” The Mandalorian cursed loudly as the blasters returned in the distance. “She went out there for you!”

R3 backed away from the bounty hunter, dome spinning back and forth.

“And THIS is why I don’t put up with you pieces of junk,” he spat, pulling out his viewfinder as he looked into the alley. “Remind me to take you apart later.”

As he moved out into the open, shouldering his rifle, the Mandalorian noticed others down at the end of the alley. He pulled the viewfinder up to his visor again, realizing there were blinking fobs in the hands of apparent Guild members. He glanced down at the one attached to his hip - the one for the R3 unit at his side - and noticed it was a solid red.

Who were they looking for, and where was that damn droid wrangler?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this is the fastest I've updated something? You can thank having two days off due to snow for that.


	4. Chapter 4

R3 beeped anxiously as they followed behind the Mandalorian, whirring past now-empty stalls of the marketplace. It was cleared out completely, shops shuttered as yelling was heard in the distance. The droid beeped again, running right into the bounty hunter as he came to a quick stop.

“Say another thing and you’ll become target practice before I collect my pay,” The Mandalorian hissed, listening for which way the yelling - and blaster fire once again - was coming from. 

As they turned the corner, the unlikely pair saw two guild members with blinking fobs heading down an alley, blasters drawn and ready. He drew his own, the rifle shouldered as he followed them. 

You were just trying to buy parts for R3’s comlink. You weren’t trying to get carried away in the middle of a blasted marketplace, which you now realized was teeming with bounty hunters.

Lots of bounty hunters with bright red fobs.

Like the one who was trying to pick you up.

You were able to wiggle out of the Twi’lek’s grasp before they had a good hold on you, turning rather limp and hitting the ground with a thud. 

Then came the blaster fire, soaring above your head. 

“Oh no.” 

You tripped over yourself as you scrambled to get up, hands grabbing fistfuls of dust as the Twi’lek above you returned fire. You didn’t even think to fish out the blaster the Mandalorian had given you as you ran the opposite direction of the shots being fired.

Did they want R3 as well?

“I cannot believe this is happening,” the Mandalorian groaned, watching from cover as a pair of bounty hunters checked their tracking fobs. “Of course she’d be trapped out here in the middle of a fight while someone was tracking an asset.”

He looked down at his own fob, noticing that it was still a bright and solid red. The R3 unit whirred softly behind a stack of crates, out of view.

“I doubt she’s even used the blaster I gave her! Now who are they tracking...” he wondered, moving to sneak up behind them and knock them unconscious. 

It was a quick movement - the human was down first, easily grabbed. The Trandoshan, on the other hand, was a bit more of a fight. The Mandalorian grappled with them, using their sling pack to pull them down to the ground. 

R3 came out of hiding - almost running over the other bounty hunter in their urge to find where you’d disappeared to. They chirped and beeped in a one-sided conversation as the Mandalorian crushed one of the blinking fobs. 

He wasn’t paying attention to the droid, really - just a nod and a sigh here and there as they grew closer to the exchange of blaster fire and something that wasn’t Basic.

If he had been sent out to find the droid for data that remained…

You were shaking. Hands, head, and legs all shook as you ducked behind a table in a secluded alley. You watched as the barrel of the blaster matched the tremors in your hands, biting back tears as the commotion seemed to follow you. Part of you wanted to keep running - maybe run back to R3 and that Mandalorian, run with them away from everything. But the other part of you knew you that even if you did run, they’d catch you.

Like all the other droids before you fixed up. You knew something happened to them after you sent them rolling on their way, beeping as if the best thing in the world was to meet you.

You heard footsteps and tightened your grip on the blaster, knees pulled into your chest.

Just point and shoot, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A shorter chapter, but a chapter nonetheless. I didn't want to jam a ton of what I have planned into here... besides, a cliffhanger is fun!


End file.
